Hiya,
I am doing my grade 6 piano exam in November and i have to practise lots of scales. Because they are 4 octaves and i have to practise them in 4 different styles (legato, staccato, forte and piano) it takes ages and makes my wrists sore. I've always practised my scales before my pieces so when i come to do my pieces i either dont have that much time because ive spent ages practising scales, i have got bored, or my wrists are sore causing me to make mistakes. What should i do?

Split them up into groups so that you are covering them all over 4 days or more.
I found I could do that and keep my scale practice to about half an hour a day.
Alternate bewtween staccto and legato, you don't need to do each one both ways all the time as the technique is the same.

I divided them by scales starting on particular notes but you may like to keep 'relatives' together instead.

If I had a 4 day schedule I would do them in reverse order on alternate rotations.

Don't forget that it's the pieces that carry the bulk of ther marks! Maybe you shouldn't always practise the scales first if they're already at a reasonable standard; there's a limit to how good they'll get.

Dont over do it, just perhaps a few scales a day, and that will balance it out. Let me just ask, how long do you practise? Grade 6 should require AT LEASE an hour of practise each day.

Your wrists shouldnt be sore, and if they are, it means you're doing something wrong, which might be the reason why you're playing them so much in order to get them right. Tell your teacher that they get sore, and he/she should be able to identify the problem. Usually, its either due to too much tension in the wrist/forearm area, or because you're pressing the keys down instead of hitting them.

No worries.. i thought the time i played only 2 styles(legato and staccato).. I don't understand why are you playing forte and piano? is it your teacher ask you to practise like these?
For scales, you just need to memorize all the fingerings, don't mess up everything for just a wrong turn on your fingerings.. prevent to have slips in scales. The most important is also quick response. And scales must be played just like singing.. the melody must be smooth for legato and strong for staccatos.. I remeber i got 20 marks for scales when i was in grade 6!

Good luck in your exam!

Dennis~~

same here... i also got 20 for my grade 6! it's the highest i've ever got for scales

when you play the scales, also remember to crescendo... as what dennisssj has said, scales must be played just like singing and having quick response is also very important


ShArOn

I'm afraid I don't agree at all with this - either the time set or the sentiment behind it. I'm a believer in quality not quantity, as has been mentioned in numerous posts already.
(If anyone's interested, I did 30 mins a day right up to grade 8 and got a high distinction. It's possible.)

I couldn't agree more. I too believe in quality; one can improve more in 20 minutes of focused, concentrated practice than in 2 hours of just playing through. Like cellocase, I did 30 minutes a day for my Grade 8 piano and got 139, so it's more than possible. I learn very quickly and work hard, so that amount of practice worked for me. Only now, working at DipABRSM level, am I doing more (currently around 1-2 hours a day).

Although quality is important than quantity, i think if you work hard and you got good results, it's just something that you feel like great satisfaction.. don't you agree with me? If you are not talented enough, then you have to practise hard so that you can be perfect!

I practise sometimes(maybe 3 hours a week) only for my grade 8 piano, because i'm too busy with school work and other activities, so i just feel quite lucky to get a Merit though! haha..

Dennis~~




I second that! Congratulations to _piano_ for getting distinction in your grade 8.. Continue working hard for DipABRSM!

Dennis~~

Thank you! :-) I'm working hard for my DipABRSM now, although I probably won't take it for at least another year. I've found that much more practice is required, to get the pieces to the much higher level necessary, to understand them and to be satisfied with them. But then again, maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist!

The wrists are suppose to be sore at the begining, or it won't build up your stamina. Build it up bit by bit. If you miss a lot, you have to start again. I missed a lot last year, and don't have much stamina for scales.




My dad keeps nagging me to practice the mistakes. I make too many mistakes to get right

If you go through your list of scales you will find that you know most of them well I expect. Make a list of the ones that you need to work on and spend a few minutes a day learning those. You can save time by playing the other scales for one octave just to check their accuracy and for two octaves to be sure of fingerings when moving from one octave to the next. Perhaps twice a week run through lots of scales, but do keep up the work on your pieces, sight reading and aural skills too. You will want to get good marks in each section of your exam. Don't let your practice become unbalanced and spend ages on scales at the expense of something else. Good luck with it.

yes, your wrists will be a bit sore at the beginning when you practise(especially staccato scales), but this pain will disappear after a long time of practising and you will feel much relieve. Important note is you must play the staccato scales deep, really detached and not too harsh, try to relax while playing!

No, i have to do them for my exam because im doing trinity.

Are you implying im not talented?







Wow...how do you fit everything into such a short time-frame? I DO believe in quality; i wont practise somedays if i dont want to because its better not to practise than to practise badly, but i also think quantity is important- John Chen didnt get away with only 30mins a day. I did 30 mins a day for grade 3 and my violin teacher expects that much from me when ive only been playing for 8 months. How many months preparation do you do for your grades?

Around 3 months' preparation for my Grade 8. I'm no musical genius, but I worked hard during that time in the practice that I did and listened carefully to what my teacher told me to do.

Wow you must be really good, i could never do that.

ok, thanks everyone for your replies!

[quote name='Alias' post='408503' date='Oct 16 2006, 12:40 PM']
[quote name='dennisssj' post='407417' date='Oct 15 2006, 02:04 AM']

Although quality is important than quantity, i think if you work hard and you got good results, it's just something that you feel like great satisfaction.. don't you agree with me? If you are not talented enough, then you have to practise hard so that you can be perfect!

I practise sometimes(maybe 3 hours a week) only for my grade 8 piano, because i'm too busy with school work and other activities, so i just feel quite lucky to get a Merit though! haha..

Dennis~~

[/quote]

Are you implying im not talented?
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oh no.. don't get me wrong.. i mean others who are not talented enough! like me probably!? continue being confidence! ok? If you are offended i sincerely apologise here.

Dennis~~

To be honest... I actually spend more time practising studies and improvising on the piano!